Observed variations of σθ and σΦ in the nocturnal drainage flow in a deep valley

The variations of and in the drainage flow in the Brush Creek valley of western Colorado are investigated using data from Doppler acoustic sodars and instrumented towers. The data were obtained on two experimental nights during the 1984 ASCOT field study. There is good agreement between the variations derived from low-level observations of the sodars and those derived from the towers located throughout the valley. The observed hourly average and in the nocturnal drainage flow are about 20 ° to 25 ° and 5 °, respectively; these values are much larger than those generally observed over flat terrain during nighttime stable conditions. After sunrise (about 0600 MST), as the valley warms and the flow direction changes to up-valley, these parameters increase sharply to their peak values at about 0800 MST and then decrease to their normal daytime values after about two hours.In the drainage flow, the hourly average varies inversely with wind speed according to the relation u 0.7ms^-1. The vertical standard deviation is much less enhanced by complex terrain than the horizontal standard deviation. The observed values are predicted fairly well by the local similarity theory.Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Summer Research Participant at ATDD in 1987 andOak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Summer Research Participant at ATDD in 1987 and     

Insights from experimental economics on local cooperation in a small-scale fishery management system

Cooperation is central to collective management of small-scale fisheries management, including marine protected areas. Thus an understanding of the factors influencing stakeholders’ propensity to cooperate to achieve shared benefits is essential to accomplishing successful collective fisheries management. In this paper we study stakeholders’ cooperative behavioral disposition and elucidate the role of various socio-economic factors in influencing it in the Roviana Lagoon, Western Solomon Islands. We employed a Public Goods Game from experimental economics tailored to mimic the problem of common pool fisheries management to elucidate peoples’ cooperative behavior. Using Ostrom's framework for analyzing social-ecological systems to guide our analysis, we examined how individual-scale variables (e.g., age, education, family size, ethnicity, occupational status, personal norms), in the context of village-scale variables (e.g., village, governance institutions, group coercive action), influence cooperative behavior, as indexed by game contribution. Ostrom's framework provides an effective window for conceptually peeling back the various socio-economic and governance layers which influence cooperation within these communities. The results of our research show that the most important resource user characteristics influencing cooperative behavior were age, occupation and beliefs about giving access to others to fish for commercial gain. Through elucidating the factors affecting stakeholders’ propensity to cooperate to achieve shared benefits, our analysis provides guidance in understanding cooperation in relation to collective management of marine resources.     

Signal enhancement and multiple suppression using Radon transform: an application to marine multichannel seismic data

Radon filters are often used for removal of multiple reflections from normal move-out-corrected seismic reflection data. In the conventional Radon transform, integration surfaces are hyperbolic rather than linear. This specific hyperbolic surface is equivalent to a parabola in terms of computational expense, but more accurately distinguishes multiples from primary reflections. The forward transform separates seismic arrivals by their differences in travel time move-out. Multiples can be suppressed by an inverse transform of the seismic data. Examples show that multiples are effectively attenuated in pre-stack and stacked seismograms. Based on the parabolic Radon transform, a new method is utilized for missing offset restoration, resampling and regularization of pre-stack individual common depth point (CDP) gathers. The method is also valid for resampling spatially aliased seismic data. Restoration of missing offsets and trace interpolation is an interesting and important problem in seismic data processing. Here we present an application of Radon transform on a multichannel seismic data set from the western continental margin of India (WCMI), which shows remarkable signal enhancement.     

Observed seasonal and intraseasonal variability of the East India Coastal Current on the continental slope

We present data from three acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) moored off Cuddalore (12^°N), Kakinada (16.5^°N), and Gopalpur (19^°N) on the continental slope of the western Bay of Bengal and one mooring on the slope of the northern bay (89^°E, 19^°N; referred to as being located at Paradip). The data were collected during May 2009 to March 2013 and the observations show that the seasonal cycle, which includes the annual cycle, the semi-annual cycle, and a peak around 120 days, dominates the observed variability of the East India Coastal Current (EICC). Spectral analysis suggests that the 120-day peak dominates the seasonal variability at Paradip and is strong at Gopalpur and Kakinada. The annual cycle is coherent along the western boundary of the bay, i.e., the east coast of India, but with significant phase differences between moorings. At the semi-annual and 120-day periods, the alongshore coherence is weaker. Intraseasonal variability is weaker than the seasonal cycle, particularly at Cuddalore and Paradip, and it exhibits seasonality: the strongest intraseasonal variation is during spring (February–April). Peaks around 12 and 20–22 days are also seen at Gopalpur, Kakinada, and Cuddalore. A striking feature of the currents is the upward phase propagation, but there are also instances when phase propagates downward. The much lower vertical phase speed in the top ～100 m at Cuddalore leads to a distinct undercurrent at this location; at other locations, the undercurrent, though it exists often, is not as striking. During spring, however, the EICC tends to flow poleward (eastward) at Cuddalore, Kakinada, and Gopalpur (Paradip) over the top ～300 m, which is the maximum depth to which observations were made. The cross-shore component of the EICC is much weaker than the alongshore component at Cuddalore and, except for a few bursts during spring, at Kakinada and Gopalpur. It is only at Paradip, on the slope of the northern boundary, that significant cross-shore flows are seen during spring and the summer monsoon (June–August) and these flows are seen to be associated with eddy-like circulations in the altimeter data. We use the ADCP data to validate popular current data products like OSCAR (Ocean Surface Currents Analyses Real-time), ECCO2 (Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II), and GODAS (Global Ocean Data Assimilation System). The OSCAR currents at Paradip match the observed currents well, but the correlation is much weaker at the other three locations. Both ECCO2 and GODAS fair poorly, particularly the latter because its variability in this boundary-current regime is extremely weak. Though it performs badly at Paradip, ECCO2 does capture the observed variability on occasions at the other locations.     

Radiocarbon ages of pedogenic carbonate nodules from Coimbatore region,Tamil Nadu

In this paper we discuss the limitation of radiocarbon dates on the pedogenic calcic nodules formed in situ within the vertisols in the upland region of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. The radiocarbon ages were obtained using low-level scintillation counters and the dates range from ∼24 to 31 ¹⁴C kyrs BP. The ages correlate with the marine isotope stage of Late MIS3. However, since the calcic nodules are pedogenised and formed in an open system, the ¹⁴C ages should only be considered as estimates and not absolute ages because of the possibility of open-system behaviour with respect to carbon. Thus, we express caution in the interpretation of these and other radiocarbon ages obtained on pedogenic carbonate nodules. Multiple sub-mm size subsamples could provide more reliable age estimates.     

Zonally resolved water vapour coupling with tropical tropopause temperature: Seasonal and interannual variability,and influence of the Walker circulation

Climate Dynamics - Global stratospheric water vapour is strongly coupled to the tropical cold-point tropopause temperatures. We quantified the coupling between temperature and water vapour in the...     

Assessment of suspended particulate pollution in the Bhadra River catchment,Southern India: an environmental magnetic approach

Open-cast mining generates sediment in river systems at globally significant scales. One of the challenges in attributing measured sediment loads to upstream mining activities is establishing the source of sediments that are a mixture of natural and mining-based materials. The environmental magnetic data (mass-specific magnetic susceptibility, anhysteretic remanent magnetisation, isothermal remanent magnetisation and inter-parametric ratios) on 57 samples of suspended sediment from the Bhadra River in the Sahyadri (the Western Ghat) of India have been used in this study. Samples were collected upstream, adjacent to and downstream of Kudremukh, a mountainous and high rainfall site where the largest mechanised open-cast mine in south Asia was located. Graphical and multivariate analyses and modelling of the data show that on average ~29% of the river suspended load downstream of the mine is derived from mining and allied activities at Kudremukh although the mine occupies less than 5% of the catchment. The contribution of primary ore is the maximum (18%), followed by transitional hard weathered ore (7%) and weathered ore (4%). The model has done a fairly good job of unmixing; the sum of errors is <1 for 40 samples, 1–4,254 for five samples and >71,000 for four samples. Modelling of samples with small mass seems to produce large errors. This investigation demonstrates the utility of environmental magnetic data, which can be obtained in a simple and rapid manner, and the unmixing of such data in identifying the contribution of mining activities to the total suspended sediment load.     

Gas hydrate saturation in the Krishna–Godavari basin from P-wave velocity and electrical resistivity logs

During the Indian National Gas Hydrate Program (NGHP) Expedition 01, a series of well logs were acquired at several sites across the Krishna–Godavari (KG) Basin. Electrical resistivity logs were used for gas hydrate saturation estimates using Archie’s method. The measured in situ pore-water salinity, seafloor temperature and geothermal gradients were used to determine the baseline pore-water resistivity. In the absence of core data, Arp’s law was used to estimate in situ pore-water resistivity. Uncertainties in the Archie’s approach are related to the calibration of Archie coefficient (a), cementation factor (m) and saturation exponent (n) values. We also have estimated gas hydrate saturation from sonic P-wave velocity logs considering the gas hydrate in-frame effective medium rock-physics model. Uncertainties in the effective medium modeling stem from the choice of mineral assemblage used in the model. In both methods we assume that gas hydrate forms in sediment pore space. Combined observations from these analyses show that gas hydrate saturations are relatively low (<5% of the pore space) at the sites of the KG Basin. However, several intervals of increased saturations were observed e.g. at Site NGHP-01-03 (S_h = 15–20%, in two zones between 168 and 198 mbsf), Site NGHP-01-05 (S_h = 35–38% in two discrete zone between 70 and 90 mbsf), and Site NGHP-01-07 shows the gas hydrate saturation more than 25% in two zones between 75 and 155 mbsf. A total of 10 drill sites and associated log data, regional occurrences of bottom-simulating reflectors from 2D and 3D seismic data, and thermal modeling of the gas hydrate stability zone, were used to estimate the total amount of gas hydrate within the KG Basin. Average gas hydrate saturations for the entire gas hydrate stability zone (seafloor to base of gas hydrate stability), sediment porosities, and statistically derived extreme values for these parameters were defined from the logs. The total area considered based on the BSR seismic data covers ∼720 km². Using the statistical ranges in all parameters involved in the calculation, the total amount of gas from gas hydrate in the KG Basin study area varies from a minimum of ∼5.7 trillion-cubic feet (TCF) to ∼32.1 TCF.